


Broken Dreams

by toooldforfandom



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/F, F/M, Romance, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-31
Updated: 2016-08-31
Packaged: 2018-08-12 02:44:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7917355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toooldforfandom/pseuds/toooldforfandom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During those long summer nights, with the night sky clearer than ever, she had looked up and dreamed about how she would be the one to explore the stars and how she would tell everyone that there were no monsters out there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Dreams

When Connie was younger, years before she would met Steven, she would spend hours looking up at the night sky. Counting the stars, making up names for the figures she had imagined she could see in them, imagining what or who was beyond what she could see.

She knew that they weren’t alone in the universe, everyone knew that. But they had been left alone for millennia. The forbidden ruins and the monsters haunting them were enough for humanity to warn them about their place in the universe, only very tentatively traveling to the moon and then stopping all space exploration after what they had found there.

Once in a while a monster appeared in the news, sometimes because someone had tried to explore one of the ruins and sometimes because a monster had gotten too close to a town, but her dad always changed the channel if he noticed she was watching.

Her own town was the victim of one of those monsters once, and while she didn’t know the details, they had experienced a power cut that lasted days. During those long summer nights, with the night sky clearer than ever, she had looked up and dreamed about how she would be the one to explore the stars and how she would tell everyone that there were no monsters out there.

Then, she had met Steven. Wonderful, innocent, brave Steven. The light of her life. The man in front of her waiting for her to talk. The boy that had shown her magic and love were real and that sometimes they were real _together_.

 

* * *

 

“We need to talk,” Connie said, wincing at the cliché. Steven frowned before nodding.

“Yeah, we do,” he replied, stretching his arms and sitting in the sand, looking up to her.

 

* * *

 

She could pinpoint with absolute accuracy the start and the end of the happiest period of her life so far, and it had started after being trapped with a strange boy inside a pink bubble.

Now she could recognize that meeting Steven had meant growing apart from her parents, but at the time it had looked like an acceptable sacrifice. They wouldn’t understand anyway, she thought at the time.

Later on she would train with swords, naively thinking she could be useful, while Steven would fight against monsters and had dangerous adventures in space that would leave her sick with worry.

They both “knew”, in the way that teenagers do, that they would be always be together. Even when Steven didn’t grow up for years, even when he grew up all at once, even when they fought that one time and didn’t talk for months, even when her parents had threatened to move after the beginning of the second gem war. The fact that they would always be together was never in doubt.

 

* * *

 

Connie sat in front of Steven, looking at the ocean trying to avoid his gaze.

“Are you okay?” Steven asked, putting a hand of top of Connie’s smaller ones.

“I’m not sure I remember the last time I was okay,” she replied. She could see herself in Steven’s eyes, pathetic and weak, before looking away again.

She was lying, of course. She knew when things had changed.

 

* * *

 

The second gem war began a few months before it was known as such, with a first attack as devastating as it had been surprising.

Connie still remembered how they had been in the beach that night, both celebrating the start of her holidays. They danced, laughed and kissed. Sometimes they fused and Stevonnie would laugh, twirl and jump before separating again, and then they would continue dancing their strange dance of three.

Steven had been lying in the sand, Connie sitting on top of him holding one of his hands in her cheek, wishing they could stay like that forever, when the night exploded in flames and what was left of their childhood vanished along with most of the temple and Steven’s house.

 

* * *

 

“Connie… what’s wrong?”

“I can’t do this anymore.”

 

* * *

 

Thankfully none of the gems had been hurt by the explosion. Amethyst had been caught by it but they found her gem unharmed under the burnt wood. The emotional hit had been harder, Pearl the most affected, but they endured. They had to.

Peridot had just found out that it had been a Homeworld attack when their enemy made their second appearance. This time it was a ship full of rubies landing on Empire City and destroying everything in their path before the military could stop them. The Crystal Gems only found out thanks to Connie’s dad who had been watching the news at the time and called her to find out where she was.

The next time it was a pearl and an amethyst, this time targeting another city. Homeworld was attacking the Crystal Gems by targeting the ones they had promised to protect.

The attacks continued and the Crystal Gems lived almost as nomadic warriors, moving from town to town trying to stop the attacks, people both hating them and thanking them.

Connie abandoned her studies, against her parents wishes, and left to live with Steven and the gems. She still believed she could save the world then.

 

* * *

 

“What if we stayed here? No one knows us here, no one can hunt us.” Connie continued, grabbing Steven’s hand and looking into his eyes.

 

* * *

 

Homeworld never stopped attacking but the frequency of their attacks slowed. It was too late though, humanity had grown to hate the gems.

They captured Amethyst first, while she was scouting a new place to stay. It was a short fight, the purple gem didn’t want to hurt the humans, her love for the planet where she was born betraying her. The humans didn’t have such reservations, an electrified net was enough to destabilize and poof her.

They found out by the propaganda in the streets, “Dangerous Alien Subject Captured“. Peridot left the team that night.

Garnet was captured next, and Steven eyes still went dark every time someone mentioned her. He still hadn’t forgiven her for giving herself up to protect them. She had left them a letter, written in blocky letters first and then in a flowery script where she explained that this was the best possible route in the many she had foreseen.

Someone had noticed the humans that always accompanied the gems and now posters with their faces decorated most walls. They were fugitives, “terrifying renegade humans” would say Pearl almost smiling.

A month later Connie would find her family home burning. They didn’t know if it had been a Homeworld attack or someone had found out it was where her parents lived but the end result was the same. Now she was alone.

 

* * *

 

“You have no idea how much I’d like to live here with you. To forget about everything but…”

“You can’t leave your family behind like I did,” Connie finished for him, covering her face.

Embracing her, Steven tried to console her but there was nothing he could say. In the silence that followed Connie realized her childhood dreams had only been dreams. There were only monsters beyond the stars, and they had succeeded in turning humanity into monsters as well.


End file.
